When Tomorrow Comes
by FieldOfIrises
Summary: Tomorrow another fight would commence. Tomorrow lives would be taken and blood would flow in the field of Orience once more. But today, there was nothing that matters, just her and him.


It was just the day before they were deployed to the battle at the Big Bridge. Ein looked around class 0's room and saw the ever confidence in the eyes of her brothers and sisters. Ace was talking with Queen and Trey. Nine as always was arguing with someone, this time it's with Eight. Sice and Seven are unusually is with Cinque, Deuce and Carter chatting happily. Rem and Machina are together as always she always thought that they'd make a cute couple. Jack and King were near the window dozing off without a care in the abuzz inside the classroom, they have like that ever since anyway. Ein drew in her sketch pad the sight with a smile in her face, later she would show them to mother and surely she would smile too.

Tomorrow, the attack on Byako would commence. Many would die again. Many would be forgotten once more. But today, it was their time for their own. No commands. No missions. No fighting. No death. Just simply a time to be together.

She flipped the sketchpad in her hand stared at the unfinished portrait of a man. He was the person she loved the most, Kurasame Susaya, their captain. A blushed seeped into her cheeks tracing the drawing with her fingers. She always wondered about how his skin would feel like. Would it be cold or would it be warm? His ever blue eyes were full of fire like a true servant of Suzaku should. She knew that it was futile to love her commanding officer but she knew when she first saw him that it was not mere attraction or admiration. His voice, his face, his eyes, she loved all of them, it was as if that she met him before in another life, in another time and in each and all of them she loved him so.

She then took her pencil and inscribed next to the illustration his name. At this time, the doors open and the stern figure of their captain entered the room. She heard class 0 in chorus "Taichou!" she smiled at this. At first, they were all reluctant to accept him as the captain of class 0. The refused to trust him but since the assassination of the queen of Seiryuu they learned to. Now he's one of the few people class 0 trust other than their mother.

"Everyone, I trust that you had your rest." He said in a stern voice. His tone was always strict but you can sense the kindness in it. "Tomorrow, we will fight Byako, I trust that you are fully aware of that."

"You bet!" Nine shouted.

"You don't have to remind us." Sice joined.

"Taichoooou, don't you have any trust in us?" Jack said.

"Hmm, that's not it. I didn't come this far to see my squad die again so don't you children go dying on me." He said in a low tone. "Be sure to come back alive."

"Taichou." She heard herself say.

"Hmph, you too old man!" carter scoffed. "It'd really be lame if the captain die."

"Taichou, let us all go home together." Ace smiled. "After tomorrow, let's go back together."

Kurasame just posed a relieved looked but Ein noticed even behind his mask that he gave them a sad smile and a nod. She knew then that something was wrong. That something was going to happen and there was nobody who can stop it. The captain excused himself and left the room. Nervously Ein followed him and led them to the balcony.

"Taichou…" she reached out and grabbed onto his coat.

"Hmm?" he turned around to face her. "Huh? Ein? Is there anything you need?" his expression did not change. Cold and stern as always.

"Taichou, I-I…" Ein mumbled.

"Hmm?"

"I-I'm scared." She blurted out.

"Scared?" The captain stepped back and looked at her fiercely. "You are a cadet of Suzaku and a member of class 0, being scared is out of the ques-"

"I'm scared!" Ein raised her tone. "But, I'm not scared of going to battle or fighting or even death. I was raised to fight anyway."

"Then what are you scared of?" his tone changed. It changed into a caring and kind voice. She loved it when she hears this tone of his. He only use it when he talks to her and she felt so special for it.

She looked up to him and met his blue orbs. Tears started to well up in her own. She was scared. Frightened. "I'm scared. I'm scared that I won't be able to see you again, Kurasame-taichou."

"Ein…"

"I know it's stupid. But there's something in me that is so anxious and panicking. I don't know why but it's there, an unending fear." Her held on his coat grew tighter. "Is it possible for me to stop you from going?"

There was silence between them. The captain just looked down on her without a word of comfort or anything just looking at this young girl who was on the verge of crying. And then breaking his silence he put his hand on her head and patted her.

"Ein, I'm sorry but that's a request I cannot fulfill." He answered with resolve ever clear in his voice. "I am a soldier of Suzaku, it is my duty to protect it and the Crystal. I cannot simply run away."

"Bu-but there's a possibi-"

"I know." She saw him smile behind his mask. "I know, Ein. But this is war. There would always be a possibility of death every time you go out on a mission and I have prepared myself for it every time I am deployed in the past. This time too."

"I don't want you to die, Taichou" she finally gave into her emotions.

"I am flattered to hear that you care for me as a cap-"

"It's not just that!" she proceed to embrace him. The sketchbook in her hand fell of as she did. She caught her captain off guard and the two almost stumbled if not for the perfect footing of Kurasame. "I-I like you, Taichou!

"Ein!"

"No, I don't like you." She began to sob. "I love you, Kurasame-taichou. I don't want you to die."

The young girl in his arms was no longer a child in his eyes. He forgot when he started to see her as woman but it seemed that he always did. Her chocolate brown hair and light green eyes were perpetual as he remember the first day he saw her in the room. It was strange. When he met her eyes then, something inside him knew her from somewhere like a faraway dream that he held in his hands before. Fleeting and wonderful.

"That is not something we could decide for ourselves, Ein." He gently said. He felt like her hold grew tighter around his waist. He was about to push her away thinking that all of this was child's play and his heart was just playing a trick on him when a glimpse of the fallen sketchbook caught his attention. His eyes widen and a small prick touch his chest. His portrait laid bare in front of him right next to it was his name and underneath were the words he never would have imagined.

 _The person I love the most._

"That's…." he breathed. "…me."

Ein flinched when she realized what he was looking at but in the end she just held him and buried her face onto in his chest.

"Yes" she muffled. "I love you."

"You do realize that we have a ten year gap." His gaze grew kind

"Yes"

"You know that I am you captain."

"Yes."

"You do realize that I might die in the mission ahead."

This time she was quiet.

"And when I die, you would just forget about me."

"I won't." she let go of him to look into his eyes. "I won't forget. It will always be here in this moment." She picked up her sketchbook and placed it near her chest. "If you die, I'll forget the sensation of your skin, the sound of your voice but with this I will never forget your face, your eyes and the fact that I love you beyond measure. In your eyes I might be just a child but Taichou, this child loves you with all her heart. I might betray mother by saying this but I'd take all the risk because all I have now are only words. I have nothing to offer but this heart."

"Ein…" it was his turn to embrace her. "Ein."

"Taichou."

"Ein."

He stared onto her face and etched in his heart her figure. He might forget it one day but in this moment there was him and her. Nothing else matters.

She raised her hand to his face and slowly took off his mask. He closed his eyes allowing her so. She held it in her hands as the other trace the scar on his cheek lovingly. With each caress, he felt her love seeping through her fingertips. She then cupped his face and gave a wide angelic smile. "I love you. Everything about you, Kurasame-taichou."

The captain found himself leveling his eyes to hers. He rested his temple onto hers before giving it a kiss. He returned to look into her eyes before a planting a swift kiss on her pink dainty lips.

"Ein…" he looked deeply into her eyes and saw in them the longing for him. It made him proud that a young woman loved him and longed for him. He smiled now without a covering, bare and vulnerable in front of her. She closed her eyes and he then kissed her deeply. A kiss that both of them would probably forget when tomorrow comes but in this time, in this moment, it was all that they have. No promises of a future or a life together just a kiss to proclaim true love.

Tomorrow another fight would commence. Tomorrow lives would be taken and blood would flow in the field of Orience once more. But today, there was nothing that matters, just her and him.

"Taichou"

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

"Ha-ha, me too. I love you, Ein."

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

They all gathered in the cemetery in front of the grave of their supposedly captain. She can hear Ace singing the song that mother taught him. For some reason, all of them loved that song especially when Ace sings it. It gives them hope and strength. All of them wore the same expression, they have no memories of their captain but it was seen in their faces the longing and emptiness the man left then. He made a great impact in their lives, losing him left a huge whole in their hearts without even knowing it and yet tears did not came to them for in their minds there was no face, no voice, nothing to remind them of him.

When everyone left to prepare for the seizing of the Byako capital, Ein found herself in front of the grave with the sketchbook in her hand. After the Battle of the Big Bridge, she haven't opened it yet. But today, something in her told her that she had to open it now, in this place, in front of _his_ grave. She did not know why she had to be in that place in particular. Like everybody else, she doesn't remember him but deep down she knew she had to be there in this moment or something will be lost and never be retrieved ever again.

She sat down and opened it. Browsing through portrait by portrait until she stumbled onto the last one of the portraits. Her eyes widen at the sight of her own drawing. She traced the illustration lovingly with her fingertips. Her chest tightened up to the point she can't breathe. She looked into his eyes and saw various things. Strange that it was just a drawing but it had the power to render her breathless. Tears started to form in her eyes without any reason at all but when she saw what she herself penned on paper right next to it. Tears came then sobs. She cannot remember his touch, his voice or his personality but her heart remembers something. Something so much powerful than mere memories of the mind. Her heart stung and her voice croaked. She cried and cried until there was no more tears to shed.

This grave doesn't belong to just any stranger or just any other soldier. This grave belongs to Class 0's one and only captain, Kurasame Susaya.

The person she loved the most.


End file.
